honest_abe
Jul 3, 12, 1:39 pm
Open jaw trips involve flying to one city and returning from another. We were trying to find the best price for such a trip in first class but it isn't easy. You have to constantly check back to see if prices have gone down. Almost all web sites don't remember the specifics of such a flight so finding the price on an airline site or third party (like Orbitz) and saving the resulting search is problematic. In addition, some sites wil notify you of price changes but not so for open jaw flights. However, I found a solution.
It turns out that Expedia is the only site I could find that remembers the exact settings (including seat class, number of travelers, airline preferences, time of travel preferences, etc.) of a search. Thus, one can bookmark (favorite) the search and can check it over and over coming up with the exact same parameters. Of course, that only tells you the information for a specific set of dates and you have to keep checking to see when fares go down for your trip date.
Using this, here is what I did:
1) I saved the settings for my trip date as a book mark and noted the price 6 months before travel. Best price was $1600 ATL to ANC and SEA to ATL.
2) I modified the dates a week at a time until I found a better price (under $1500) that I could go for. I saved that setting as a new bookmark. I then moved forward a week and saved that setting ($1600).
3) Each week I would check the two "test" prices by simply clicking the bookmarked links. I noted that the next week, the price for the second test went down. So I moved my tests forward a week. I would also click on my travel date bookmark but it remained the same.
4) I edited the dates forward each week. I noted that prices would drop about 6 weeks ahead of the set dates.
5) About 5 weeks ahead of travel, the price dropped not only for that week but for the next week and dropped even more than the original $1500 - to under $1400!
6) The next week, sure enough, my dates dropped to that price and I booked. Normally, my policy is to use the third party if the trip involves multiple airlines but use the airline site if it is only one. However, although the deal was all Delta, the Delta site had the original $1600 price even as Expedia showed sub $1400 for the same flights. I booked Expedia and immediately checked my itinerary on Delta's site to verify. It was good. I now had my First Class seats at a great price.
Note that changing the dates in the bookmark can be done by simply changing the dates after clicking the link and saving the changes as a new bookmark but since it is not that difficult to read and modify URLs in a bookmark, I simply edited the dates. I named the bookmarks "Low Trip Week", "High Trip Week" and "Actual Trip Date" so I would know which to select and/or edit. Since the city codes are in the URL, I could check other cities by, e.g. changing the ATL in the URL to CLT for Charlotte (shown below with dates changed for privacy).
Outgoing flight is in RED
Return is in BLUE
Flight Class in Green (1=First Class, 3 would be economy)
expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=fexp&qryt=1&tovr=-1294367296&ps3u=&&altd=&hqot=&pddt=&prdt=&altg=&hftp=&flag=q&wsds=EX014D52BE1A0%24FE!2%24FF%24EF!601!p0!50!8%24 FF!90311002002!8022!4%24FF!90100001!V0!4%24FF!C0%2 415000P!2%2433%2437P%2438%2431%2439MDM%2430%2438M% 2439MP!2%2434%2430%2437!4%24FF!5011MYNMOX000%242A3 %24E6%240C100001FPMMYN000%24CAd%24E6%240C100001!90 %24E0%2480%24E9H100001!90%24E0%2480%24E9H100001!90 %24E0%2480%24E9H1!O0!8%24FF!N0!4%24FF!50!4%24FF1!C 01000!4%24FF!G0%24E0%2480%24E9H%24E0%2480%24E9H131 01!602!D0!4%24FF!80&shpr=w&gptc=0&rfrr=-57675&ftid=&sfcf=1&city1=ATL&citd1=ANC&date1=5%2F11%2F2012&time1=361&city2=SEA&citd2=ATL&date2=5%2F15%2F2012&time2=361&flcr=&tktt=1&stkc=1&stkp=1&swoc=&ussw=1&rdct=1
It turns out that Expedia is the only site I could find that remembers the exact settings (including seat class, number of travelers, airline preferences, time of travel preferences, etc.) of a search. Thus, one can bookmark (favorite) the search and can check it over and over coming up with the exact same parameters. Of course, that only tells you the information for a specific set of dates and you have to keep checking to see when fares go down for your trip date.
Using this, here is what I did:
1) I saved the settings for my trip date as a book mark and noted the price 6 months before travel. Best price was $1600 ATL to ANC and SEA to ATL.
2) I modified the dates a week at a time until I found a better price (under $1500) that I could go for. I saved that setting as a new bookmark. I then moved forward a week and saved that setting ($1600).
3) Each week I would check the two "test" prices by simply clicking the bookmarked links. I noted that the next week, the price for the second test went down. So I moved my tests forward a week. I would also click on my travel date bookmark but it remained the same.
4) I edited the dates forward each week. I noted that prices would drop about 6 weeks ahead of the set dates.
5) About 5 weeks ahead of travel, the price dropped not only for that week but for the next week and dropped even more than the original $1500 - to under $1400!
6) The next week, sure enough, my dates dropped to that price and I booked. Normally, my policy is to use the third party if the trip involves multiple airlines but use the airline site if it is only one. However, although the deal was all Delta, the Delta site had the original $1600 price even as Expedia showed sub $1400 for the same flights. I booked Expedia and immediately checked my itinerary on Delta's site to verify. It was good. I now had my First Class seats at a great price.
Note that changing the dates in the bookmark can be done by simply changing the dates after clicking the link and saving the changes as a new bookmark but since it is not that difficult to read and modify URLs in a bookmark, I simply edited the dates. I named the bookmarks "Low Trip Week", "High Trip Week" and "Actual Trip Date" so I would know which to select and/or edit. Since the city codes are in the URL, I could check other cities by, e.g. changing the ATL in the URL to CLT for Charlotte (shown below with dates changed for privacy).
Outgoing flight is in RED
Return is in BLUE
Flight Class in Green (1=First Class, 3 would be economy)
expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=fexp&qryt=1&tovr=-1294367296&ps3u=&&altd=&hqot=&pddt=&prdt=&altg=&hftp=&flag=q&wsds=EX014D52BE1A0%24FE!2%24FF%24EF!601!p0!50!8%24 FF!90311002002!8022!4%24FF!90100001!V0!4%24FF!C0%2 415000P!2%2433%2437P%2438%2431%2439MDM%2430%2438M% 2439MP!2%2434%2430%2437!4%24FF!5011MYNMOX000%242A3 %24E6%240C100001FPMMYN000%24CAd%24E6%240C100001!90 %24E0%2480%24E9H100001!90%24E0%2480%24E9H100001!90 %24E0%2480%24E9H1!O0!8%24FF!N0!4%24FF!50!4%24FF1!C 01000!4%24FF!G0%24E0%2480%24E9H%24E0%2480%24E9H131 01!602!D0!4%24FF!80&shpr=w&gptc=0&rfrr=-57675&ftid=&sfcf=1&city1=ATL&citd1=ANC&date1=5%2F11%2F2012&time1=361&city2=SEA&citd2=ATL&date2=5%2F15%2F2012&time2=361&flcr=&tktt=1&stkc=1&stkp=1&swoc=&ussw=1&rdct=1